Ridgeway rolls out the red carpet to sell more cars

Ridgeway rolls out the red carpet to sell more cars

Overview

The objective was to design, implement and stage a marketing campaign and sales event for multiple dealerships (x20) to sell more Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, MINI, ŠKODA and Volkswagen vehicles.

Big Marketing devised and managed the VIP events to increase new car registrations for the dealerships.

The VIP events allowed the dealerships a little leverage with the manufacturers to develop compelling offers and additional value, which helped with the events’ success.

Strategy

We targeted specific email and direct mail customer databases (existing and conquest contacts) as well as a wider general audience via press advertising.

Each tactical item was strategically released to help build momentum and registrations to the event.

Challenge

Staging a multi-site VIP event may well be daunting and risky investment for any dealer to commit to.

This wasn’t the biggest challenge for Big, as with good planning and coordination, events can be quite predictable. The unpredictable part that makes it a risky investment is: “Will people turn up?”

The marketing campaign had to consider all factors that might prevent or distract people attending the event, e.g. national sporting occasions etc.

Solution

Big planned out a journey that contacts and prospects could follow to make attending the event really easy – and, dare we say it, a must-not-miss event.

We coordinated all the marketing collateral to take a ‘contact’ through to becoming a ‘customer’.

A ‘contact’ would be persuaded to become a ‘registrant’. Then the ‘registrant’ would be encouraged to become an ‘attendee’. An ‘attendee’ would then have the opportunity to become a ‘customer’ (benefiting from a highly advantageous offer).

Result

Over a 4-day period that the VIP events took place at 20 dealerships, a very impressive 950 new cars were registered. That’s an average of 47.5 units per dealership.

Conclusion

Sales and marketing events might seem a risky investment for any business; but there are some key tactics that can be implemented to increase the chance of success.

Staged and strategic release of marketing collateral (and follow-ups) will build momentum and engagement rather than successfully creating a buzz and letting the excitement die out.

The key to ensuring the best opportunity for a successful event is: follow-up, follow-up and follow-up again.